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2 days before Christmas

"C'mon Nick, you have to do it at some point and it will be even funner with a friend," Jess pleaded.

"That's assuming that it's fun in the first place," Nick muttered.

"Don't be such a grinch Nick, It's Christmas!" She said excitedly.

"Fine, you win lets go!" Nick grumbled.

"Yay!" She shouted gleefully, clapping her hands and jumping up and down like a little child.

She is so adorable, Nick thought with a smile as he grabbed his car keys and coat. She seems to be much better, so if this hell that I am about to endure makes her smile and be happy then it will be worth it.

He couldn't lie the past few days had not been fun. She had been very all over the place, a mess of emotions, mostly moping about in her room. Every time she emerged looking like she was over Spencer, she would start the vicious cycle again later that day once she thought about him again. However she seemed to be coming out the other end now that she had had time to wallow in self pity which was great. He had hated seeing her upset all the time. After 4 days of non stop sadness she had finally got it out of her system and seemed able to move on with her life. He hoped.

However those past four days had also helped him a lot too as it gave him lots of time to think. In the end he had decided that it wasn't fair to Layla if he tried to start something with Jess. Jess probably only thought of him as a friend anyway so there was no point in throwing away what he had with Layla.

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The automatic door opened and they both entered the mall relieved at the sudden warmth yet with two entirely different expressions on their faces.

Oh God, Nick thought. Kill me now. As predicted by him in the car the mall was crowded with busy shoppers, covering every square inch of the polished marble floor.

"Where should we go first?" She asked excitedly.

"Home," Nick half joked, half wished.

"Get into the spirit Miller," she pouted.

She called me by my last name, why do I find that sexy? Nick wondered.

"I'm sorry I'll try," he apologised. "How about the decorations first, it's the closest one too us."

"Brilliant idea!" she beamed. "I can't wait to buy some snowflake decorations!" She then happily marched towards the shop making Nick have to run a bit to keep up with her. However she was too quick and by the time he entered the shop she had already gathered a massive armful of decorations.

"Oh Nick can you get me a basket?" She asked as soon as she spotted him.

"Uh huh," Nick nodded and headed over to the basket place. When he got back to her the amount she had before had more than doubled.

"Great thanks!" She chimed before releasing her armful into it.

"At this rate we may need a second basket," Nick muttered under his breath, grumpy because he hated anything to do with shopping.

"I heard that, lighten up Nick," she laughed dumping dozens of baubles into the basket.

"Sorry I just hate shopping," he apologised.

"I never would have guessed," she said sarcastically with a smile. "Now help me get this tinsel down from the top shelf."

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"Jess do we really need mulled wine and eggnog," Nick asked. "I don't even like either."

"Well I do and I'm only getting a bottle of each, where's your sense of Christmas spirit Nick?"

"Disappeared when I was 8 after my dad lost the money he was gonna use to buy me a present at the horse races," Nick explained.

"Nick that is so sad," she stopped loading the shopping trolley and looked up at him with concern.

"You get used to it when you have a father like mine," Nick said bitterly. "Anyway I'm sorry I'll cheer up seeing as we're almost done shopping. Also I've been meaning to ask how do you have enough money for all this stuff?"

"I put a little aside every year as I like to properly celebrate Christmas, it being my favourite season and all," she explained. "Also I've got an interview for a job at a school on the 2nd of January so I can always pay back my debts if I get the job."

"Jess that's great news!" Nick said, his face breaking into a smile. "I'm so happy for you!"

"I'm happy for me too," she laughed.

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"Well I have to say Jess, you do know how to make Christmas shopping less boring and suicidal," Nick admitted.

"I told you," she beamed putting the small turkey in the fridge. "Spencer used to always make me do it on my own," she said. "I guess it's him that's missing out rather than me."

"Exactly that's the way to think about it," Nick encouraged helping her put up the small 4ft Christmas tree that they bought. Turns out Christmas trees are something that need to be bought much earlier as this one was the last one left. Still as Jess said:

"A small tree is better than no tree at all." She had chirped as she handed the guy selling it some money.

Once they managed to prop the tree up properly Nick got into the spirit of helping her decorate the apartment and the tree while she sung various Christmas songs. With his help and her eagerness they managed to finish decorating the apartment within an hour and he had to admit it looked pretty spectacular.
Where the sliding wall was in the living room there was the glistening Christmas tree which had so many lights on it that it was more light than tree. On the top of the tree was a massive gold glittery star which glimmered and lit up a little when it caught the light. At the bottom of the tree were decorative presents which Nick had tried to unwrap until Jess told him that they were purely for decoration. All the walls had snowy white tinsel attached to them and Jess had pinned paper snowflake ornaments to each one so they were hanging off each end. On the coffee table were three Christmas scented candles and a large snow globe. The sofa had a snowflake printed blanket draped across the back of it and there were some glittered pine cones on the window sills. The kitchen counter has silver statues of reindeers and Christmas trees on one of its corners and on each of their doors to their rooms were their own personalised stockings which took forever to be printed.

"It looks great Jess," Nick congratulated. "Well done!"

"Couldn't have done it without you," she beamed back, studiously admiring her handiwork. "Now there's just one thing left, I need to hang this from the ceiling," she said, gesturing towards a massive three dimensional snow flake. "Do you have a stepladder."

"No idea, but I'll check," Nick replied. He eventually found one in Schmidt's room which he hoped hadn't been used for some weird sex game and Jess climbed it eagerly.

"Nope I still can't get high enough," Jess realised. "I'm gonna have to go on my tiptoes and lean off it slightly, can you hold my hips to make sure I don't fall off."

"Uh.. Uh you..you want me to hold your hips," stuttered Nick feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"Yes please, just so I don't fall," she said casually.

"Ok sure," Nick agreed.

Slowly he gently rested his hands on her hips finding the situation extremely awkward and as she leaned forward he ended up face to face with her backside. A situation that he had to say he was not exactly opposed to. It was like she was deliberately teasing him, waiting for him to crack and grab her and kiss her. And that's exactly what he wanted to do. He didn't know how he managed to resist doing exactly that.

"I've just fastened it, I just need to get down n... Woah!" Jess cried as she overbalanced and fell off the step ladder. Luckily it wasn't a very serious fall and she fell right into Nick's arms. So he was holding her bride over the threshold style. "Oops," she said and they both immediately started laughing and giggling.

"I don't even know why I'm laughing," Nick laughed.

"Me neither," Jess giggled. "I could have ended up much worse."

"It's good that didn't happen then," Nick said, his voice turning serious.

They had both stopped laughing now and were looking at each other silently. Nick could feel the tension building up, so thick that you could cut it with a knife, and he was holding her, protecting her in his arms. He had waited for what felt like forever for a moment like this to happen and he wasn't going to let it go away again like last time outside the bar. Slowly he bent his head down a little and leant in to kiss her...

Thanks for reading!